Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the complainant’s priority on the housing register. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, says the Council should place him in band B on the housing register.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence and medical evidence. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Mr X lives in a two bedroom flat which he rents from a social landlord. He lives with his partner and two children both aged under ten. One his children has medical issues. The Council accepted the child needs their own room for medical reasons and awarded band C on the grounds of medical need. The Council confirmed this on review.
5. The Council said Mr X should raise any issues of disrepair with his landlord and said he does not qualify for increased priority due to disrepair because there is no evidence Environmental Health has decided the property does not meet the minimum standards.
6. Mr X disagrees with the decision. He says his two children should not share a room and he should be in band B because one child has medical needs.
7. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. I have considered the allocations policy and the medical evidence and Mr X does not qualify for band B. He does, however, qualify for band C because the Council has accepted that one child should have their own room; for this reason it granted band C medical priority. The evidence does not show Mr X qualifies for a higher level of medical priority and he does not qualify for overcrowding priority because he currently has a two bedroom need and lives in a two bedroom property.
8. Mr X would need to provide the Council with proof the property does not meet minimum standards, as certified by Environmental Health, and I have not seen anything to suggest he has provided such proof. Mr X can report any disrepair to his landlord and complain to the landlord if he dissatisfied with the response.
9. I appreciate Mr X thinks he qualifies for band B but there is no suggestion of fault in the Council’s decision to place him in band C. We are not an appeal body and we have no power to change Mr X’s priority on the housing register or remake the banding decision.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman